Windows Media Services Part 2

Contents 1

Windows Media Services
Part 2

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Windows Media Services Part 2...... i

Unicasts...... 1

How to...... 1

Streaming unicasts with Windows Media Administrator...... 12

Unicast management tools overview...... 13

Using unicast publishing points...... 14

Introducing unicast publishing points...... 14

Using on-demand unicast publishing points...... 15

Using broadcast unicast publishing points...... 16

Creating unicast publishing points with Windows Media Administrator....17

Creating new unicast publishing points—advanced topics...... 19

Creating an on-demand unicast publishing point—advanced topics...19

Creating a broadcast unicast publishing point—advanced topics.....20

Announcing your unicast with an .asx file...... 20

Publishing a unicast stream...... 21

Editing unicast publishing point properties...... 22

Distributing ASF streams from a Windows Media server...... 22

Configuring the server for your unicast...... 23

Controlling client connections and bandwidth usage...... 24

Calculating the maximum number of effective client connections.....24

Configuring the client connection rate in a Windows Media server...... 25

Determining optimal settings for client connection rate...... 26

Setting and administering HTTP streaming and distribution...... 27

Managing unicast publishing point clients...... 27

Troubleshooting your unicast...... 30

Unicasts 1

Unicasts

A unicast connection is a point-to-point connection between a client and a server in which the client receives a distinct stream. This section shows you how to use Windows Media Administrator to create and manage unicast publishing points and to administer and monitor unicast publishing point events and clients.

How to. . .

This section lists the procedures that are most commonly performed in creating and managing unicasts. Use the procedures to quickly accomplish a task. This procedure list precedes the overview information that explains unicasts in more detail. If you want to learn more about unicasts, continue past the procedures and read the overview information.

To configure and access on-demand .asf files

1.Open Microsoft Windows Media Player.

2.On the File menu, click Open.

3.In the Open dialog box, type mms://Windows_Media_server/file.asf and then click OK.

Windows Media Player buffers and plays file.asf.

Note

Windows Media server components is installed ready to stream on-demand content. The default Home publishing point is SystemDrive\ASFRoot.

To configure and access broadcast (live) unicast streams

1.Open Microsoft Windows Media Player.

2.On the File menu, click Open.

3.In the Open dialog box, type the URL for the broadcast unicast publishing point alias (mms://Windows_Media_server/publishing_point_alias) and then click OK.

Windows Media Player buffers and plays the stream from the broadcast unicast publishing point.

Note

A live content stream is generated by Windows Media Encoder, a remote station, or a remote unicast publishing point, and propagated through a broadcast unicast publishing point. Windows Media Player connects to the broadcast unicast publishing point to access the content.

To create an on-demand unicast publishing point using QuickStart

1.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Unicast Publishing Points.

The Unicast Publishing Points page appears.

2.Make sure the Use wizard to create new on-demand unicast publishing point check box is selected, click On-Demand,and then click New.

Configure and Publish Unicast On-Demand Streams QuickStart Wizard appears.

3.On the Select a publishing point screen, select Create a publishing point.

4.On the Create a new publishing point screen, type an alias for the new on-demand unicast publishing point in the Alias box. In the Path box, type the path to the on-demand unicast publishing point directory on a local drive or on a separate computer.

5.On the Locate target .asf file screen, enter the path to the .asf file that you want to publish. Specify the name and extension of the .asf file.

6.On the Select publishing method screen, select the desired publishing protocol. Then, select the publishing options that Microsoft Windows Media Player uses to access your on-demand unicast.

For more information about publishing protocols, see Understanding Windows Media Services protocols.

By default, Windows Media server components creates an announcement in the on-demand unicast publishing point that you are creating. For more information about announcements, see Announcing your unicast with an .asx file.

For more information about other publishing options, see Publishing a unicast stream.

7.On the Ready to publish screen, review the list of options that you have selected. To edit any of these, click Back once or more to return to the appropriate on-demand unicast publishing point information.

8.If you do not plan to send the .asx file to users in an e-mail message, save it to an accessible directory. Save any .htm files created by the publishing methods you selected to directories that users can access either directly or via a Web server.

Note

On the Publishing complete screen, you can test the stream from your on-demand unicast publishing point. Click Test URL, Test .asx, Test .htm w/<HREF>, or Test .htm w/<OBJECT> to begin streaming the on-demand unicast publishing point content in Windows Media Player.

To create a broadcast unicast publishing point using QuickStart

1.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Unicast Publishing Points.

The Unicast Publishing Points page appears.

2.Make sure the Use wizard to create new broadcast unicast publishing point check box is selected, click Broadcast,and then click New.

Configure and Publish Unicast Broadcast Streams QuickStart Wizard appears.

3.On the Select a publishing point screen, select Create a broadcast publishing point.

4.On the Specify source screen, select the source for your broadcast content.

5.On the New broadcast publishing point to a (the source for your broadcast content that you selected) screen, type an alias for the new broadcast unicast publishing point in the Alias box. Then type the path in the Path box. If Windows Media Encoder is the source for the broadcast, verify the value in the Port box is correct.

By default, the path from a broadcast unicast publishing point to sources from Windows Media Encoder or a remote Windows Media station uses the MSBD protocol; the path from a broadcast unicast publishing point to sources from a remote unicast publishing point uses the MMS protocol. For examples of how these types of paths are used, see Using broadcast unicast publishing points.

You also can connect your broadcast unicast publishing point to any of these broadcast content sources by using HTTP. For more information about using the HTTP protocol, see Setting and administering HTTP streaming and distribution.

6.On the Select publishing method screen, select the desired publishing protocol. Then, select the publishing options that Microsoft Windows Media Player uses to access the live content from your broadcast unicast publishing point.

For more information about publishing protocols, see Understanding Windows Media Services protocols.

By default, Windows Media server components creates an announcement. For more information about announcements, see Announcing your unicast with an .asx file.

For more information about other publishing options, see Publishing a unicast stream.

Note

To create an on-demand unicast publishing point using the advanced method

1.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Unicast Publishing Points.

The Unicast Publishing Points page appears.

2.On the Unicast Publishing Points page, make sure that the Use wizard to create new on-demand publishing point check box is not selected.

3.Click On-Demand and then click New.

The New Unicast On-Demand Publishing Point page appears.

4.In the Alias box, type the name of the new on-demand publishing point.

5.In the Directory path box, type the path to the physical directory where the .asf files can be stored.

6.(Optional) To restrict the number of clients that can connect to this publishing point, in Maximum clients, choose Limit to from the pull-down menu and then type the maximum number of clients.

7.(Optional) To limit the maximum network bandwidth that the publishing point can deliver, in Maximum bandwidth, choose Limit to from the pull-down menu and then type the maximum value in the Kbits/sec box.

To create a broadcast unicast publishing point using the advanced method

1.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Unicast Publishing Points.

The Unicast Publishing Points page appears.

2.On the Unicast Publishing Points page, make sure that the Use wizard to create new broadcast publishing point check box is not selected.

3.Click Broadcast and then click New.

The New Broadcast Publishing Point page appears.

4.In the Alias dialog box, type the name of the new broadcast publishing point.

5.In the Path type dialog box, choose the Windows Media component that will provide the live stream—Windows Media Encoder, a remote publishing point, or a remote station.

6.In the URL dialog box, type the path to the source you identified in the Path type dialog box.

You must use MSBD as the protocol for the URL.

7.If you chose Windows Media Encoder as the Path type, in the Port box, type the port that the encoder is using to deliver the source.

8.(Optional) To restrict the maximum number of clients that can connect to this publishing point, choose Limit to from the pull-down menu and then type the maximum number of clients.

9.(Optional) To restrict the maximum amount of network bandwidth that the publishing point can deliver, choose Limit to from the pull-down menu and then type the maximum value in the Kbits/sec box.

To enable HTTP streaming for the Windows Media Unicast service

1.Quit any application or stop any service bound to port 80.

2.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Server Properties.

The Server Properties page appears.

3.On the Configure Server - Server Properties page, select the HTTP Streaming and Distribution tab.

4.Select the Enable HTTP streaming for Windows Media Unicast service option.

5.Click Apply.

A message appears, notifying you that you must restart the computer that hosts Windows Media server components before any changes can take effect.

6.Click OK in the message box and then restart the computer that hosts Windows Media server components.

Note

If you choose to enable HTTP streaming for the Windows Media Unicast service, Windows Media Administrator configures HTTP streaming to use port 80. If you enable HTTP streaming and use port 80, you cannot run Windows Media server components and an HTTP server on the same computer (unless you configure Windows Media Services to depend on the Web services; for more information, see To edit the registry so that the Windows Media Unicast service depends on the Web server). The Windows Media server components and HTTP service compete for use of that port.

To disable HTTP streaming for the Windows Media Unicast service

1.In the Windows Media Administrator menu frame, click Server Properties.

The Server Properties page appears.

2.On the Configure Server - Server Properties page, select the HTTP Streaming and Distribution tab.

3.Select the Do not enable HTTP streaming or Distribution option.

4.Click Apply.

A message appears, notifying you that you must restart the computer that hosts Windows Media server components for any changes to take affect.

5.Click OK in the message box and then restart the computer that hosts Windows Media server components.

Note

By default, HTTP streaming is disabled. This procedure assumes HTTP streaming is enabled for the Windows Media server components.

To create an announcement file for an on-demand unicast

1.Open a text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad) and copy and paste the following syntax into a new document:

<title>title</title>

<entry>

</entry>

</asx>

2.Use the information in the following table to edit the syntax, replacing the sample information with your own.

Replace / With
Title / The title that you want to appear in Microsoft Windows Media Player as the Show title when the .asf file is rendered.
Mms / Http, but only if Windows Media server components is configured to use HTTP streaming.
Server_name / The name of the Windows Media server on which the on-demand unicast publishing point you want to reference exists.
Directory_path / The path to the on-demand unicast publishing point that you want to reference (if not the Home publishing point).
File.asf / The name of the .asf file in the on-demand unicast publishing point that you want to announce.

3.Save the document as a plain text file with an .asx extension in a shared directory or on an HTTP server.

The announcement file is ready to be used. It can be attached to an e-mail message, used as the object of an HREF on a Web page, or stored on a local server.

Notes

Announcement (.asx) files are created automatically when you use the QuickStart wizard to create an on-demand unicast publishing point. For more information, see step 6 in To create an on-demand unicast publishing point using QuickStart.

This procedure assumes that you have created an on-demand unicast publishing point without using a QuickStart wizard, and want to announce a stored .asf file.

To create an announcement file for a broadcast unicast

1.Open a text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad), and copy and paste the following syntax into a new document:

<title>title</title>

<entry>

</entry>

</asx>